Grandma Gatewood's Walk: The Inspiring Story of the Woman Who Saved the Appalachian Trail

by Ben Montgomery Narrated by Patrick Lawlor

Overview

Emma Gatewood told her family she was going on a walk and left her small Ohio hometown with a change of clothes and less than two hundred dollars. The next anybody heard from her, this genteel, farm-reared, sixty-seven-year-old great-grandmother had walked 800 miles along the 2,050-mile Appalachian Trail. And in September 1955, atop Maine's Mount Katahdin, she sang the first verse of "America, the Beautiful" and proclaimed, "I said I'll do it, and I've done it."




Grandma Gatewood, as the reporters called her, became the first woman to hike the entire Appalachian Trail alone, as well as the first person-man or woman-to walk it twice and three times. The public attention she brought to the little-known footpath was unprecedented. Her vocal criticism of the lousy, difficult stretches led to bolstered maintenance and very likely saved the trail from extinction.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly - Audio

02/23/2015
Montgomery introduces listeners to Emma Gatewood, a woman who walked the length of the Appalachian Trail at age 67 in 1955 and twice more in the decade that followed. By her amazing feats, she secured attention and interest in a decaying national treasure and helped preserve it. Through research, interviews, and journals accounts, Montgomery pieces together Gatewood’s physical journey, interspersing it with her life story and the challenges that lead her down the Appalachian trail. Reader Lawlor has a warm and inviting voice that is soft but deep. It invites the listener to follow along in Gatewood’s journey. He provides a good cadence, combined with a strong emphasis and warm delivery. He fleshes out Montgomery’s prose with a bit more personality and enthusiasm than the text has on its own, which makes the production more enticing. His character voices are not impressive, but that hardly detracts from the listening experience since the story is focused entirely on Gatewood. A Chicago Review hardcover. (Dec.)

From the Publisher

"Go, Granny, Go! . . . This astonishing tale will send you looking for your hiking boots. A wonderful story, wonderfully told.” —CHARLES MCNAIR, BOOKS EDITOR AT PASTE MAGAZINE AND AUTHOR OF PICKETT’S CHARGE


“Grandma Gatewood’s Walk is a brilliant look at an America—both good and bad—that has slipped away, seen through the eyes and feet of one of America’s
most unlikely heroines. Gatewood’s story suggests anything is possible; no matter your age, gender, or quality of your walking shoes.” —STEPHEN RODRICK, AUTHOR OF THE MAGICAL STRANGER


“Grandma Gatewood’s Walk is sure to fuel not only the dreams of would-be hikers, but debates on the limits of endurance, the power of determination, and the nature of myth.” —EARL SWIFT, AUTHOR OF THE BIG ROADS


“A quiet delight of a book.” —KIRKUS REVIEWS

From the Publisher - AUDIO COMMENTARY

"A quiet delight of a book." —Kirkus

Library Journal - Audio

05/01/2015
Emma "Grandma" Gatewood did not necessarily seem prepared for a 2,000-mile walk along the Appalachian Trail. With only $200 and a small pack holding a change of clothing, the 67-year-old woman often depended on the kindness of the strangers she met along the way for food, water, and nighttime shelter. The first woman to complete the arduous trek alone when she did it in 1955, she eventually hiked it again two more times, bringing national attention to the sometimes poor conditions and highlighting the need for preservation of the Appalachian Trail itself and the National Park Trail System as a whole. Patrick Lawlor recounts Gatewood's remarkable story of sheer will and determination with skillful cadence and tone. Depending on the context, he alternates between a steady-paced narrative voice and a distinctive character voice. He enunciates well and inserts timely pauses for emphasis and reader reflection. VERDICT An inspiring biographical account about overcoming the odds and achieving one's dreams. A great audiobook to have on the shelf for anyone seeking an uplifting story.—JoAnn Funderburk, South Garland Branch Lib., TX

Kirkus Reviews

2014-01-16
A journalist's biography of the unassuming but gutsy 67-year-old Ohio grandmother who became the first person to walk all 2,050 miles of the Appalachian Trail three times. When Emma Gatewood (1887–1983) first decided she would hike the A.T., she told no one what she planned to do—not even her 11 children or 23 grandchildren. Instead, she quietly slipped away from her home in May 1955 and began her walk at the southern terminus of the trail in Georgia. Accomplishing this feat—which she often described as "a good lark"—was enough for her. Tampa Bay Times staff writer Montgomery tells the story of Gatewood's first hike and those that followed, interweaving the story with the heartbreaking details of her earlier life. He suggests that this woman, who eventually came to be known as "Queen of the Forest," was far from the eccentric others claimed she was. Instead, Montgomery posits that this celebrated hiker used long-distance walking to help her come to terms with a dark secret. At 18, Gatewood married a man she later discovered had a violent temper and an insatiable sexual appetite. Despite repeated beatings over 30 years, she remained with him until he nearly killed her. Afterward, she lived happily with her children for almost 20 years. Montgomery suggests that an article in National Geographic may have been what first inspired Gatewood to hike the trail. However, as her remarkable trek demonstrated, while the A.T. was as beautiful as the magazine claimed, it was also in sore need of maintenance. Gatewood's exploits, which would later include walking the Oregon Trail, not only brought national attention to the state of hikers' trails across a nation obsessed with cars and newly crisscrossed with highways; it also made Americans more aware of the joys of walking and of nature itself. A quiet delight of a book.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170441297
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	12/16/2014
Edition description:	Unabridged
Sales rank:	1,106,742

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